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Topic: [Using the forum as a blog] (Read 4586 times) previous topic - next topic
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[Using the forum as a blog]

How much good music is there, anyway?
There are 53 genres of content on radio-locator.com

There are 4 multicast channels.  

Aha.   How about song, album cover, song cover, and lyrics?

Why bother with song cover?  Good question, my answer,

A Million Light Years Away
Daniel L Newhouse


 

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #2
The thing is, rather than worry about perfect bit rates, you can always add additional channels for things like cover art.

Now, for bit rates, what bit rates lead to the least nuisance to the end listener?  In terms of audio fidelity and playlist?  Is it 28 kbps and 84 kbps?

Imagine broadcasting HD radio over rail lines, with a separate channel for video?  Imagine XM in geosync, so it can be picked up on train over long distances.  Really long distances.

Imagine commercial establishments switching to XM radio for background music. 

Imagine syndication not being a problem - so that you hear the ads in the middle of each game.

Also, ads for themselves syndication.  If I am looking for what channel a current game is broadcasting, wouldn't it be good just to switch to XM41 and have them mention all the current playing games on the air.


I have tried XM and Yahoo radio once broadcast most of the college football games on the internet.  The latter service is gone.


The idea here is not just entertainment, it is entertainment on the go. 


One of the objectives of an idealized audio encoder, is to encode with a sampling rate of 32 kHz at 28 kbps, auto selected by the encoder quality setting. 

I've heard that at 96 kbps the intermodulation distortion kills the broadcast range of HD radio. 

Rethinking - signing up for XM service with your XM device should be as easy as a new or old cell phone.

But that means each XM ready device has there own unique identifier.  Or the system doesn't work.  If the market doesn't like that, it's public utility space.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #3
Are you preaching?
or bored
or is it, I don't live in the United States, I have missed the question?

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #4
Are you preaching?
or bored

bored

I would like to point out, even if the older equipment can receive firmware updates, if you update the encoder too hard, you'll break that system.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #5
Terrestrial radio

Now, if you can update the encoder to get rid of intermodulation distortion, the potential broadcast range is... unknown! 


Maybe it would be so good, they could do something radical.  Retire AM, instead of finding ways to improve it. 


What about the poor AM broadcasters?  Did they ever think they may want to switch to some sort of terrestrial XM broadcast (essentially the same thing) where HD AM = XM in audio fidelity.  Then they can stay in business as long as they can.  
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #6
What about the poor AM broadcasters?
On 2nd thought, they should have just left AM alone and found a way to make receivers that don't have a hissy noise floor.   I think they did.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #7
They could have made XM a free advertising based public service at the beginning.  Now, all the equipment is subscription based.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #8
Now for TV. 

8k football!

Excited?

But, football's profitability has been questioned.  How about 152k gymnastics! 

All of a sudden, football and the Olympics are profitable.

To make music choice interesting, 500 k audio! 

I personally don't care about surround sound outside of a movie theater.  Give me good stereo sound.

These superbit technologies are kind of a way for making up for poor content.  Is it the content that is marveled or the technology?
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #9
Using the Franhauffer AAC encoder, available through Winamp Pro, there is a huge difference in audio fidelity between 32 kbps and 28 kbps AAC.  The sampling rate drops from 44.1 to 22.05 kHz.  In other words, SBR drops out.  From what I've seen, the typical XM channel is 32 kbps, and the minimum is 28 kbps.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #10
Windows 95 needed to support AAC natively for internet radio to have been a success.  You can associate .aac with WMP in Windows 10, so they finally fixed it.

Found another problem, Tag&Rename, otherwise by far the strongest tagging software, does not recognize .aac files.  So AAC still has a way to go.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #11
I misstated.  Using the mpeg 4 He-AACv2 encoder you do get a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz at 28kbps.  This is what wasn't available when XM launched.  Tag&Rename is necessary to inspect the sampling rate.  Winamp does not indicate the sampling rate of an mpeg4 encoded .aac file.

At 16 kbps the sampling rate is 32 kHz, which would give slightly better than FM quality, which was the objective of digital AM.  But, would this HD AM signal be too congested for NYC due to sideband interference?  Would it lead to, most importantly, a better broadcast range?  The thing about considering digital AM is, it's like other digital radio, but it sounds worse!  There needs to be some gimmick to it.  Broadcast range it has always had.  The encoder shifts to LC at this bit rate and, oddly, .m4a container instead of .aac. 
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #12
I am using the genuine shareware Winamp Pro. 

K, the readout does say that SBR and PS are engaged for that 16kpbs bit rate (Xandria Neverworld's End, btw).  The way to make sure it uses the .aac format is apparently to choose "Automatic" for the profile.

K, 32 khz sampling rate at 12 kbps.  Still an .m4a output.  Don't get that.  Maybe because if found tagging information for the CD?  The Very Best of the Highwaymen.  Amazing.  Because of the PS, it does not necessarily mean that monaural 6kbps will be FM quality.
Daniel L Newhouse

Re: If you could do the system again

Reply #13
D'oh, m4a is mpeg4 audio from the mpeg4 franhoffer encoder.  aac is the mpeg2 franhoffer encoder.   

Also, if I've read correctly.  RDS data is being broadcast via Bluetooth?
Daniel L Newhouse